USING COLLATERAL AND CLUSTER GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH

We all experience “brick walls” when doing our genealogical research.  I reached a dead end almost immediately when searching for my grandmother’s year and place of birth.  She never knew where she was born and could only guess at her age.  Her parents were natives of Germany and that is all she knew.   After searching all of her known collateral lines—that is, searching for information about her siblings, parents, and aunt on her father’s side, I still came up with little more than I started with.  The only new clue is that they came from West Posen area of Germany, which is now in Poland.  Her Aunt Minnie was the first of the family to arrive and she married a man from Gross Jestin, Pommern.  That is not too far from West Posen and also now in Poland.......More to come.